From the Director

The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences is a unique center for research and education at New York University. For over seventy five years, we have contributed to U.S. and international science and engineering by promoting an integrated view of mathematics and computation. Our research activities are broad, covering many areas of mathematics and computer science, as well as the application of these disciplines to problems in the biological, physical, and economic sciences. The Institute's strengths include analysis, partial differential equations, probability, applied mathematics, machine learning and scientific computing -- topics at the very heart of financial mathematics. Courant is ranked number one nationally in Applied Mathematics by US News and World Report.

Financial mathematics is but one of many active application areas at the Courant Institute; others include atmosphere/ocean science, bioinformatics, graphics and visualization, fluid dynamics, verification, neuroscience/vision, computer security, materials science, and distributed systems.

The Institute’s activities in mathematical finance are a natural extension of its historic leadership in applied mathematics. In addition to the Mathematics in Finance Masters program, the Institute's Division of Financial Mathematics, headed by Professor Marco Avellaneda, comprises faculty, Ph.D. students and visitors who address a broad range of research topics at the interface between mathematics, computing, and finance. Our faculty and Fellows publish regularly in top financial journals and books, speak at conferences, and serve on editorial boards. The focal point of the Division of Financial Mathematics is the well-known Mathematical Finance Research Seminar, a forum in which academic and industry participants from around the world share theoretical insights and practical experience.

Courant’s faculty have received a remarkable array of awards and honors. The Institute boasts 17 members of the National Academy of Sciences and five members of the National Academy of Engineering. Three faculty members have been awarded the National Medal of Science, three have been honored by the prestigious Abel prize, and twenty have received Career awards from the National Science Foundation.

The Institute’s main building, Warren Weaver Hall, is across Gould Plaza from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a block from Washington Square Park, in the center of Greenwich Village in lower Manhattan. It is a short subway ride from Wall Street or the midtown financial district.

The Courant Institute's academic environment encourages our students to respect the rigor of thought and appreciate the beauty which mathematics and science have brought to a challenging set of practical problems. But we never lose our focus on the practical nature of these problems. Our program will only be truly beneficial to the extent it can prepare students for the work they will be doing after they graduate, and this is what our close contact with the industry allows us to achieve.

Gerard Ben Arous
Director
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences